Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer THE DELUGE By David Graham Phillips Author of The Cost, The Plum Tree, The Social Secretary, etc. With Illustrations By George Gibbs CONTENTS I MR. BLACKLOCK II IN THOSE DAYS AROSE KINGS III CAME A WOMAN IV A CANDIDATE FOR “RESPECTABILITY” V DANGER SIGNALS VI OF “GENTLEMEN” VII BLACKLOCK GOES INTO TRAINING VIII ON THE TRAIL OF LANGDON IX LANGDON AT HOME X TWO “PILLARS OF SOCIETY” XI WHEN A MAN IS NOT A MAN XII ANITA XIII “UNTIL TO-MORROW” XIV FRESH AIR IN A GREENHOUSE XV SOME STRANGE LAPSES OF A LOVER XVI TRAPPED AND TRIMMED XVII A GENTEEL “HOLD-UP” XVIII ANITA BEGINS TO BE HERSELF XIX A WINDFALL FROM “GENTLEMAN JOE” XX A BREATHING SPELL XXI MOST UNLADYLIKE XXII MOST UNGENTLEMANLY XXIII “SHE HAS CHOSEN” XXIV BLACKLOCK ATTENDS FAMILY PRAYERS XXV “MY WIFE MUST” XXVI THE WEAK STRAND XXVII A CONSPIRACY AGAINST ANITA XXVIII BLACKLOCK SEES A LIGHT XXIX A HOUSEWARMING XXX BLACKLOCK OPENS FIRE XXXI ANITA'S SECRET XXXII LANGDON COMES TO THE SURFACE XXXIII MRS. LANGDON MAKES A CALL XXXIV “MY RIGHT EYE OFFENDS ME” XXXV “WILD WEEK” XXXVI “BLACK MATT'S” TRIUMPH I. MR. BLACKLOCK When Napoleon was about to crown himself--so I have somewhere read--they submitted to him the royal genealogy they had faked up for him. He crumpled the parchment and flung it in the face of the chief herald, or whoever it was. “My line,” said he, “dates from Montenotte.” And so I say, my line dates from the campaign that completed and established my fame--from “Wild Week.” I shall not pause to recite the details of the obscurity from which I emerged. It would be an interesting, a romantic story; but it is a familiar story, also, in this land which Lincoln so finely and so fully described when he said: “The republic is opportunity.” One fact only: _I did not take the name Blacklock_. I was born Blacklock, and christened Matthew; and my hair's being very black and growing so that a lock of it often falls down the middle of my forehead is a coincidence. The malicious and insinuating story that I used to go under another name arose, no doubt, from my having been a bootblack in my early days, and having let my customers shorten my name into Matt Black. But, as soon as I graduated from manual labor, I resumed my rightful name and have borne it--I think I may say without vanity--in honor to honor.